Lawn Health In Weed Control

The Importance Of Lawn Health In Weed Control

There are a few different ways to reduce the severity of weeds in the home lawn, all require little if any extra effort on our part other than following good lawn care practices that keep our lawns in overall good health and vitality.

We can never fully stop infestations of weeds by any means, there are just too many ways for weed seeds to travel including wind, shoes, clothing, bicycles, birds, pets, and by many other methods. But we can make our lawn an unfavorable place for the weeds to both establish and to thrive.

If you have trouble keeping birds away from your newly seeded lawn, then read this article about how to keep birds from eating grass seeds.

One of these methods is through good lawn health.

Lawn Health In Weed Control

One of the best methods of reducing weeds in home lawns is by maintaining our lawns in the best health possible. This works in a couple of different ways.

When a lawn is in excellent health it can out-compete weeds for nutrients, the lawn will literally keep taking more nutrients from the soil than the weeds can, thus making the weeds slow-growing and weak. The nature of lawns also encourages all the sod and runners to grow together and to grow over and naturally attempt to drown out any competitors, in this case, the competitors are weeds.

Next is the thickness of the sod, through good lawn care practices we create a lovely thick sod, not only is this the ideal lawn we all seek, but it is also a great barrier to weed infestations.

As already discussed - weed seeds can enter our lawns and yards through any means, none of which we can control. But once the sod is thickened, these weed seeds cannot find anywhere to reach the soil through the lawn's surface, the seeds will simply sit on top of the sod to be removed with our next mowing. Even if some weed seeds do manage to reach the soil, the thick sod will drown out any light to the soil and seed, making it near impossible for the seed to either germinate nor to establish.

Weed Prevention Is Better Than Weed Control

Many people often only think about weeds when it's time to treat them with herbicides because they have become so out of control. This is the worst time to treat any weeds, not only are they at their strongest and more difficult to kill with herbicides, but the cost of time and expense is also undesirable.

By being aware of and practicing the many ways to stop weeds from establishing in the first place, we create a lovely lawn which is not only the envy of the neighbors but is so much easier to keep weed and pest free.